Some newly released vintage photos give an intriguing look at what school was really like in the old days

Aug. 23—FARGO — Even now as an empty-nester, it's one of my favorite things to see on social media — those first day-of-school photos.

I'll admit it. It was difficult last year, as it was the first time since 2006 that I didn't have a child in K-12 school. But after scrolling through Facebook and Instagram and seeing all of my friends' kids in their back-to-school finest, the melancholy feeling of not taking my own photos faded away. (And my sweet daughters ended up texting me photos of them in college, so that helped.)

It's not surprising then when I uncovered some vintage school photos from decades ago that I would get a similar kick out of it.

The photos are from a Library of Congress collection. Starting in 1935, the U.S. government hired photographers to document what life was like in rural America following the Great Depression. As the project evolved into the 1940s, photographers were sent to both rural and urban areas.

The photographs that are now part of the Farm Security Administration — Office of War Information Photograph Collection form an extensive pictorial record of American life between 1935 and 1944.

What's the big deal about some old photos? We've all seen those black-and-white group photos of school kids from 1910 on their school steps, right?

Right.

But these photos are so much different. They're beautiful, and gave me a true sense of what it was like to be in school in my parents', grandparents' and even great-grandparents' time.

Some of the photos, which go back close to 100 years, are in full color, a rarity for the time. Also, they weren't really posed shots — maybe a little bit — but they featured just a handful of children in each photo, just doing what they do.

Since this is a history-related column (and because the Library of Congress lets me), I want to share the photos here.

Additionally, I'll share a couple equally beautiful shots of school days closer to home from Digital Horizons/NDSU Archives, another great repository of photos for this region.

Caught in the middle: These children in a rural schoolhouse in Austin County, Texas, pictured in April 1943, have not yet benefited from the industrial age brought on by World War II. Many dress in farm clothes, as they'd be required to work on the farm either before or after school.

Just like the photo from Texas, these children in Pie Town, New Mexico, dress in farm clothing. (Some are not wearing shoes.) The girls are all wearing dresses. In most schools around the nation, girls were required to wear skirts or dresses until the late 1960s or early 1970s.

This boy in a one-room schoolhouse in Burt, North Dakota, wears old-fashioned lace-up boots instead of sneakers. Notice how shiny his wooden desk is. A desk like this one featuring wrought iron could sell for hundreds of dollars at an antique store. The folding doors behind the boy separated him from children in other grades.

By the early 1940s, more public school classrooms were being outfitted with world maps as World War II was starting to take hold. By 1941, rural school children, like this girl, might wonder where some of the young soldiers they knew were getting sent.

Next time your children complain about their worn-out old school from the old days (before 2000), show them where these boys in Arkansas went to school.

In the extended-school-day program in public schools (like this one in Texas), some children of families where both parents were employed came to school as early as 6 a.m. to enable the parents to get to work. They would then go back to sleep on cots in the school corridor. Then they got up and went through the regular school day.

After school, they'd play games or work on their lessons until their parents could pick them up as late as 6 p.m.

Students might not complain about the hardships of online schooling during COVID-19 when they see what some children, including some in Fargo, had to do during the tuberculosis outbreak. They went to school in "open-air" classrooms. Having the windows opened was believed to make transmission and spread of the disease less likely. But children, including the ones below, had very bundled-up nap times.

Read more about how Fargo schools dealt with the outbreak.

You would be hard-pressed to find a school classroom in the United States untouched by World War II. Many decorated their walls with War Bond posters and asked children to help with the war effort.

Finally, as many of you will snap those iPhone photos of your children over the next few days, perhaps you'll be inspired by what you see here. Share them online. But if you get a chance, save them in an album somewhere. Maybe a history columnist in 2123 might get a kick out of them.

Have a great school year, everyone!